Good Bones
Glorious Relics from the Age of Reading
Published on 3. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
262 pages
978-1-966218-12-8 (ISBN)
Description
The heyday of reading is probably behind us, but in these shrewd and witty essays Brooke Allen examines the relics of the saints (and sinners) who made it what it was. Focused as much on literary lives as oeuvres, she excavates the glories of August Strindberg, George Sand, Patricia Highsmith, Anthony Powell, Truman Capote and even the late great diarist Richard Burton (who also did some acting). There are 22 essays in all, drawn from the New York Times, the Atlantic, the New Criterion and elsewhere, and Allen offers delight and surprise on every page. If the age of reading isn't yet behind you, get this book in front of you.
"Her prose swaggers with an authority drawn from true learning, and she cracks her snobbery like a whip." - John Freeman, The Wall Street Journal
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
334 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-966218-12-8 (9781966218128)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Brooke Allen has published two previous essay collections. Her work has appeared in The New Criterion, The Wall Street Journal, The Hudson Review, The New York Times, The Nation, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. With a PhD from Columbia University, she has taught literature at Bennington College and history of thought in its prison program. She and her husband, the photographer Peter Aaron, have two daughters and live in New York's Hudson Valley.